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Content Article
A new study has found evidence that mesh-related injury may trigger central sensitisation, a biological process linked to widespread, persistent pain including fibromyalgia. Researchers studying 280 women with isolated mesh-associated pain found that more than half (52%) had co-existing conditions including fibromyalgia, chronic back pain and irritable bowel syndrome. The authors suggest that, in some women, nerve injury caused by mesh may contribute to hyperexcitablility of the central nervous system resulting in Central Sensitizationa -a process already associated with conditions like fibromyalgia, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis. The study was conducted by the Manchester Mesh Complications Specialist Service. As patient advocates, Sling the Mesh highlighted one message that stands out: "fibromyalgia is a significant part of the mesh story. While we succeeded in having fibromyalgia included in the NICE mesh complications decision aid, the mesh / fibromyalgia connection is still too often overlooked by doctors. We hope this study will help women to have their voices taken seriously". -
Content Article
Over 100,000 women in England were implanted with pelvic mesh. Thousands were left with life-changing injuries. The company now selling it says its mission is to reach one million women by 2027. Kath Sansom has spent a decade fighting for the women mesh harmed. Her friend Gail is one of them. In this documentary filmed by Maze, they tell their story, and the story of a device that was never designed to come out. If you have been affected by mesh, Sling the Mesh is a support and campaign group run by women who have been through it: https://slingthemesh.co.uk/ -
Content Article
Evidence is limited on how people experience government-commissioned inquiries, what they value about them and the impacts of procedures. This study applies realist logic to examine the experiences of those designing and participating in a government-commissioned restorative approach to harm associated with surgical mesh use in Aotearoa New Zealand. Attention is paid to divergent perspectives about harm and responsibility, desired outcomes, and the multiple identities that shaped people's responses to the programme. -
Content ArticleIn June 2014, the Department of Health’s Chief Medical Officer requested a report from MHRA as the regulator of medical devices, to advise on whether the risk/benefit assessment remains correct for vaginal mesh implants. This was in light of the recent decision taken by the Scottish Parliament to ask Health Boards to consider the suspension of these devices. This is a summary of the evidence on the benefits and risks of vaginal mesh implants.
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News article
“System reforms” are needed to fix the “patchwork” of policies aimed at preventing hospital admissions and speeding up discharge, the health and social care secretary has said. Yvette Cooper said improvements could be made “even within existing resources and even within existing systems” if organisations worked together. She said: “Where I do think there are system reforms that are needed [are of the] patchwork process of, how do you solve the fact that there are people in acute hospitals who shouldn’t be in there? “We’ve had layer upon layer of different patchwork attempts to think, ‘okay, this is how we’ll prevent people going into hospital. Okay, this is how we’ll get people out faster.’ Maybe into intermediate care, maybe into some NHS-funded, maybe some local council funded, and it’s all a mess. “And actually you could do that in a much more effective way… even within existing resources, even within existing systems, there’s a lot of things that, actually, if everybody came together, we could make improvements.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 August 2026 -
News article
Medtronic must pay an Alabama man and his wife $88 million, a federal jury decided on Tuesday, in the first case to go to trial out of thousands facing the company from people claiming they were injured by hernia-repair mesh implants made by one of its units. Following a three-week trial in Boston, jurors found that Medtronic's Covidien unit failed to provide an adequate warning about the dangers posed by the mesh implanted in Larry Patterson in 2017, Medtronic and the man's lawyer said. The failure of Patterson's hernia mesh implant required significant reconstructive surgery, according to his complaint. The jury awarded no punitive damages, and it did not find that Covidien engaged in fraud. The verdict was by far the largest in more than a dozen hernia mesh and transvaginal mesh cases that have gone to trial, Patterson's attorney Timothy O'Brien said. Read full article. Source: Reuters, 4 August 2026 -
Content ArticleA new study reveals how the immune system behaves in people who have had complications from surgical mesh implants. Result? There is evidence of ongoing, abnormal immune activation throughout the body, not just at the implant site. Most research on mesh complications looks at local problems such as damage or inflammation where the mesh is placed. However, this paper asks a bigger question. Do these patients also have a whole‑body (systemic) immune response, not just a local one? The answer appears to be YES. The study was conducted by a team at the NHS Newcastle Mesh Complication Centre who say the mechanisms underpinning mesh complications remain largely unknown. Also, there are no reports characterising systemic immune dysregulation – in other words, the immune system not working as it should. The paper shows that people with mesh complications have measurable changes in their immune system throughout the body, suggesting complications may be partly driven by systemic inflammation not just local damage.
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Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Commissioner, Prof Henrietta Hughes, has written to No.10 to request further information in relation to the Hughes Report exercising her statutory powers under the Medicines and Medical Devices Act for the second time since her appointment. The deadline for a response to her request is 16 July.
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Content ArticleKath Sansom, founder of Sling the Mesh, asked what should be an easy mesh data question. Except nobody at NHS England can answer. Which tells us everything about gaps in accountability. The question? How many women have had to have part of their bladder or bowel removed because pelvic mesh eroded into their organs? How many are now living with a stoma bag because of these complications? The answer should exist. It should be easy to find. It should be centrally recorded. But NHS England says it does not hold this information. We are talking about some of the most severe, life-changing outcomes possible and there is no national record. Women are instead told that the data might sit with individual Trusts, scattered and inaccessible unless someone tries to piece it together manually. That’s not transparency. That’s a system that doesn’t fully see the harm it has caused.
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Content ArticleSling the Mesh in collaboration with researchers at the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Science are conducting a survey of people with pelvic complications. Participation involves an online survey that will take approximately 30 minutes. You are eligible to participate if you were implanted with any type of pelvic mesh (incontinence, bladder leaks, rectopexy) in a UK facility after 1 January 1998 and have experienced any pelvic mesh related complication. Find out more from the link below.
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Content Article
In this blog, Kath Sansom, founder of Sling the Mesh, argues that Sunshine legislation, which requires pharmaceutical and medical device companies to publicly disclose payments to healthcare professionals and organisations, is essential for improving transparency and patient safety. She highlights concerns that undisclosed financial relationships can influence research, prescribing and treatment recommendations, potentially leading to patient harm. -
Content ArticleThe government has launched the refreshed Women’s Health Strategy and Sling the Mesh are deeply upset to see no mention of mesh injured women and mesh centres in the media announcements from Government nor of the need for pelvic floor physiotherapy education for girls in school – despite a pledge for better education around periods. A brief reference to the postcode lottery of mesh centres appears on page 61 as Action 63. However, the Sling the Mesh community expected that their advocacy, particularly on highlighting how women’s voices are dismissed within healthcare – to be given far greater prominence. Its absence sends a deeply troubling message: that the experiences and needs of women harmed by mesh are no longer considered a priority. YET, it was the 2020 First Do No Harm report, the formidable Baroness Julia Cumberlege and Sling the Mesh campaign which highlighted for the first time how women’s voices were not being heard – and as forerunners called for urgent action to address this. Sling the Mesh have written to Wes Streeting, MPs and journalists. Read their letter at the link below.
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Content ArticleSling the Mesh welcomes the speech in Parliament on the 16 April that recognised the mesh‑injured community in the new refreshed Women’s Health Strategy, thanks to Health Minister Karin Smyth who explicitly acknowledged how our pain was ignored for years. That recognition did not happen by accident, it happened because we made a fuss, typing emails furiously – refusing to let the mesh‑injured community be forgotten, downplayed or erased. Listen to it at 12:41. The new Strategy was launched and is a powerful document which recognises that women’s voices are often ignored and downplayed across the health sector. The Strategy outlines 117 calls to action to improve women’s health across their lifetime.
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News article
Andy Burnham has pledged his support for compensation for those families affected by Primodos. Their tireless campaigning since 1978 was instrumental in securing the First Do No Harm Review led by Baroness Cumberlege. Originally, former Prime Minister Theresa May wanted a public inquiry into Primodos. But in 2018 it was decided that an independent review would examine three major healthcare scandals affecting women: Primodos, pelvic mesh and sodium valproate. In 2021, the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety review, led by Baroness Cumberlege, conducted a comprehensive review of historic documents and found that Hormone Pregnancy Tests had caused avoidable harm, that they should have been withdrawn by the regulator after the first warnings in 1967 and that this failure to act meant that women were exposed unnecessarily to a potential risk. Sadly, although Baroness Cumberlege recommended compensation for all three patient groups, the Primodos families were omitted from the recommendations made by Henrietta Hughes in 2024. Burnham paid tribute to campaigners, who have suffered harm from hormone pregnancy tests between the 1950s and 1970s. Read full story Source: Sky News, 21 October 2026 -
News article
A disgraced former solicitor who abandoned his clients with no reasonable explanation has been ordered to repay £92,000 and hit with indemnity costs, after a judge found he seriously abused the court’s process. Darren Hanison was on record to represent six women who brought vaginal mesh claims against the NHS, as part of a larger cohort of 305 claimants linked to the proceedings. Hanison failed to lodge the papers ahead of a hearing in 2022 which caused it to be relisted. Hanison’s firm, Fortitude Law, was shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2023 over his suspected dishonesty. In February this year he was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal after facing 17 allegations including dishonesty, misleading clients, poor service and serious regulatory breaches. At a hearing to deal with costs issues relating to the mesh claims, the defendants in the six linked claims requested that Hanison repay £92,000 in various payments made on account. They also asked that the former solicitor should pay the costs of the aborted hearing in 2022, as well as costs associated with the detailed assessment proceedings for the six claims. Read full story Source: The Law Society Gazette, 6 August 2026 -
Content ArticleFrench actor / theatre director and hernia mesh advocate Arnaud Dennis is in an assisted dying clinic in Belgium. In this powerful interview the 42 year old speaks about how he is awaiting approval for euthanasia after devastating complications from a hernia mesh that destroyed his life. In this final public appeal, he denounces the major health scandal of mesh, giving his last thoughts to the hundreds of implant victims he has represented in France and warns of systemic medical and institutional failures – as well as the conflicts of interests /payments from industry to surgeons, which continue to help fuel the lucrative mesh machine.
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News article
Hospital discharge delays hit their highest level on record in July. An average of 14,054 patients a day remained in an acute bed at least two weeks after they were declared medically fit to leave, according to the latest NHS England data analysed by HSJ. That is 12% up on July 2025 and beats the previous high of 13,965, set in January 2023, even though delays normally run lower in summer. Other NHSE figures show delays are also getting longer. Patients discharged in June waited an average of 0.95 days beyond their discharge ready date, up 19% on a year earlier. The increased delays were down to steep rises in waits for social or intermediate care. Delays directly related to hospital or other NHS services showed no change. Much of the growth is the result of cases in which patients’ needs were still being processed or had not been arranged, rather than directly down to a lack of care capacity. Senior NHS officials are understood to be concerned about the rise in delayed discharges. They are most concerned about the breakdown of agreements on intermediate care provision made between the NHS and councils amid budget strain and restructures. This is resulting increased care home and step-down capacity built up during the winter becoming unavailable, despite ongoing high demand. Health and social care secretary Yvette Cooper has claimed the discharge system was “all a mess”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 25 August 2026 -
Event
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ASPiH conference is one of the leading simulation events in Europe, attracting professionals, simulationists, commercial colleagues, and students across a wide range of health and social care fields. This year's conference is taking place from the 25 - 27 November 2026 at the Harrogate Convention Centre. With the pre-conference workshops taking place on Wednesday the 25th, and the main conference and exhibition taking place on the 26th and 27th. The ASPiH conference 2026 explores the theme Simulation: The Next Era - examining how simulation is evolving as a driver of education, system learning and healthcare transformation. As complexity increases across health and social care, simulation must move beyond isolated training events to become a strategic tool for innovation, co-production, workforce development and system-level change. This theme invites delegates to explore how simulation can be intentionally designed, delivered and evaluated to generate meaningful impact at micro, meso and macro levels. By bringing together diverse perspectives across professions, sectors and disciplines, ASPiH 2026 will showcase emerging practice, rigorous scholarship and bold ideas shaping the future of simulation in the UK and internationally. Attending ASPiH 2026 offers access to internationally recognised speakers, cutting-edge sessions, hands-on workshops, valuable networking opportunities and the UK’s largest dedicated simulation exhibition. Find out more about this year's event and how secure your place here. -
Content ArticleSling the Mesh are taking their fight to 10 Downing Street, urging the Prime Minister to commit to a long‑overdue compensation scheme for women harmed by pelvic mesh – and set out a clear timeframe and firm dates for action. The letter they are handing in to Sir Kier Starmer is published below. Sling the Mesh are calling on English Parliament to take the lead by setting out a robust financial redress framework that the devolved nations can follow.
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Content ArticleMore than two years after the Hughes Report was published, the UK Government has yet to provide a clear timeline for implementing a compensation scheme for the thousands of patients harmed by pelvic mesh and valproate. Published in February 2024 by the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, Professor Henrietta Hughes, the report examined options for redress for patients and families affected by these interventions. In this letter to the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Professor Hughes urges him to ensure that a clear timetable is set and that financial redress is delivered without further delay.
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Content ArticleDifferent surgical treatments are available to treat pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI). One of these treatments uses mesh which for some has led to complications requiring further corrective surgery. This research is being carried out to help develop a new patient-reported outcome questionnaire for women who have had surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP), stress urinary incontinence (SUI), and/or mesh complications. The new questionnaire will support women to report the effects of pelvic floor surgery on their quality of life, and will provide a way that surgery outcomes, risks and benefits can be measured and compared. The questions have been developed following interviews with women who have had surgery for POP, SUI and/or mesh complications, and now would like to test this questionnaire (v2) to see how well it works at measuring long-term outcomes of surgery. You can take part if (1) you have had surgery for either pelvic organ prolapse, stress urinary incontinence and/or mesh complications, (2) your last surgery was between 6 months and 14 years ago, and (3) you are aged 16 years or older.
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Content ArticleThe global surgical mesh industry is booming with a value of $650 million in 2024 – projected to surge past $950 million by 2030. Behind the billion-dollar glossy forecasts we’re extremely concerned over global expansion of mesh use with no long term outcome logging – leading to safety concerns for millions of unsuspecting patients. Driven by aggressive marketing, we fear traditional surgery skills are being lost. For example hernia mesh is promoted over traditional native tissue Shouldice hernia repairs and prolapse mesh and bladder mesh slings are sold as a quick fix with shorter recovery times compared to the tried and tested operations to treat these conditions. This, despite vaginal prolapse mesh being banned in the UK. America, Australia and New Zealand and bladder mesh slings suspended across the UK owing to the risk of unacceptable life changing complications.
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Content ArticleKath Sansom, Sling the Mesh, comments on a new study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research that has added further weight to the growing body of evidence questioning the long-term safety of synthetic hernia mesh implants.
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Content ArticleDonna Miser considered herself a driven person — active and healthy. As a mom, wife, grandmother and employee, she lived her life to the fullest. She described loving her job, breaking records in her department and working 40 to 50 hours a week. That all changed when she had a transvaginal mesh sling implanted. Transvaginal mesh slings, a type of bladder sling often made from synthetic mesh, are surgically implanted through the vagina to support the urethra or bladder neck to treat incontinence. Before 2019, transvaginal mesh was also used to treat pelvic organ prolapse, but the FDA has since banned its use for that purpose. After receiving the mesh sling, Miser started suffering severe complications such as pain during sex, bloody discharge and a knife-like pain in her vagina. She said she felt like a completely different person, watching her life disappear. After her first mesh removal surgery, she gradually worked up to being able to move around for 15 minutes before she was down again. “One minute I was happy at work, healthy and physically fit. I mean, for being 58, I was 30. Now, I’m 80, and it drives me nuts,” Miser told Drugwatch. She’s now looking to file a transvaginal mesh lawsuit. In an interview with Drugwatch, Miser shared her painful journey through mesh complications, hoping to help spread awareness and prevent others from suffering what she went through.
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Content ArticleEvidence of polypropylene mesh degradation has revealed particle accumulation in surrounding tissues, raising concerns about potential local and systemic immune responses. Associations between polypropylene degradation and autoimmune/autoinflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants-like symptoms have been made, and vigilant clinical assessment is important, especially in patients with a predisposition for allergy or autoimmune diseases. Related reading on the hub: Read a blog author Dr Nicholas Farr wrote for the hub on medical device safety
